Having a hard time getting back on track
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Having a hard time getting back on track
| Fri, 10-07-2005 - 4:08am |
It used to be easy! I loved eating healthy and really liked to walk and to sweat, but lately it's another story.
I used to be able not to eat before going to sleep, and to take 1/2 hour to exercise.
I don't understand why! It's almost like I'm not motivated anymore, but I do want to lose 15 pounds, and I do want to be healthy. There's is something missing but I dont know what!
I could blame the almost empty freezer, and my schedule. But that would only be excuses. I still have good food and if I had the time to train before I still do.
I miss the feeling I had after a workout, but I still dont get up to do it...
It's so frustrating.
Anyone has tips on how to deal with this?
Emilie

Hi Emilie
I understand your frustration, and am going thru the same thing
The only way I can get back on track is to take "one minute" at a time
I have to talk myself INTO doing whats right, each minute of each day...........its helping.......this week I got exercise 3 out of 4 days since Monday.......and tonight I will be getting some more walking in, and some dancing too....lol
My eating, my choices werent too bad, but I didnt count my calories like I usually do, so I ate too much, BUT thats BECAUSE I didnt follow my own advice, and take it a minute at a time........I just went with the flow instead..........IF I had been Talking to myself AND watching what I was doing, it wouldve been a great week, instead of a so-so one
know what I mean?
Have a good one,
Gayle
Have a good one,
Gayle
I totally know how you feel.
Hi Emilie,
When I read your posting, I couldn't believe how similar your feelings and thoughts are to mine. I am struggling at trying to lose the last 15 pounds and it has been frustrating. I use to weigh over 200 pounds and it has taken me a long time to get where I am. I am currently 147 pounds. I have learned, as I am still learning, that weight loss is not so much about food as it is about attitude and coping through life's issues. I have been beating myself up so much lately because of the 7 pounds I put on in the past few months that I sweated so much to lose at the beginning of the summer! As I reflect on my past eating behaviours the past few months and years, I have noticed that I wasn't always consistent with making healthy choices. I gave in many times and overate on certain occasions specifically when I was feeling lonely, sad, bored, upset and dealing with painful experiences such as a break-up. I grew up feeling like it was wrong and inappropriate to express these 'negative' feelings and so I turned to food to help me comfort myself. Unfortunately, I created another set of problems but I am recognizing that my battle with food has nothing to do with food but more with the critical comments and thoughts that I have with myself. I almost feel like my own watch guard sometimes - watching everything I do and eat to see if I will give in and prove to myself that I will.
I feel like I don't know how to relax anymore and just enjoy the journey because I am so anxious to be at my goal weight already. I then ask myself, would I be able to maintain it? Life's challenges, stresses, issues will still exist. The path will not be any smoother or easier because I am 15 pounds lighter. I will not be happier because even when I was within 6 pounds of my goal weight (last year) I still wanted to lose more rather than enjoying my accomplishment up until that point. I realize now that every step of the way is just as significant.
I don't have a magic wand (although I wished I did! lol.) or the perfect answer to share with you but I am hoping that some of my insight may help to shed light on your situation and help you out in that respect. I don't have problems working out even though sometimes I don't want to but only because I feel bummed out about the way I feel about myself. I still live at home and I was always (and still sometimes do) blamed living at home as my reason for not being able to take off the rest of my weight. It is hard to keep things out of the house that I normally didn't keep in my home when I was away at University but then again, I just visited a friend tonight and ate a slice of blueberry pie and I was not at home. I didn't even want the piece of pie but took it because I messed up my afternoon so thought, 'What the heck, I messed up today anyways!' It was not a good attitude and I regret it. Even this afternoon, I came home late from shopping, hungry and in the midst of trying to decide what to eat, I was munching on different foods before eating a tuna sandwich but by then I felt yucky. So, I threw in the towel and munched for the rest of the afternoon even though I didn't feel too great. I was disappointed with myself and rather than praise my efforts for the week or even this morning, I magnify a small part of my day to be worse than it could have actually been. This has been my pattern for a long time and I want to stop putting myself through it.
People tell me that I look fine and that this is where I should be but I don't believe that. I want to look and feel great, not 'fine'. Sorry, fine is not good enough for me. I believe that if I CONSISTENTLY ate properly (5-6 SMALL meals every 3 hours - helps to keep metabolism up), CONSISTENTLY kept physically active (4-5/week), slept at least 8 hours/night and avoided eating/overeating for emotional reasons by dealing with life's issues and comforting myself without food, then I would be able to lose the rest of my weight and maintain it without having to struggle anymore.
I know what you are feeling because I am feeling it too. I feel like I don't want to do this anymore because it's become very exhausting (mentally and emotionally) but I also know that I am not happy with the extra weight. For myself, I think that I need to take it one day or even one moment at a time and deal with things as they come, just like another member wrote. My most difficult moments are 3-4 p.m. in the afternoon until I go to bed. Some days are better than others but for the most part, I find the end of the day a challenge and stressful. Also, weekends can be hard too because I don't have much planned so I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what I will be doing while pacing in the kitchen. Something comes to mind as I just wrote that - 'Not Planning = Planning To Fail.' It's so true.
I am going to get up tomorrow and just keep going. I think one important thing to keep in mind when trying to lose weight is to keep your focus and to keep looking forward rather than dwelling or analyzing what just happened. Also, watch your thoughts, because they become your words, which become your habits. Trust me, this is easier said than done. I say a lot of things and write them down in my journal but I don't always follow through with them but I am going to put more of an effort into listening to myself.
I also think that you need to examine what is going on in your life. What is keeping you from losing weight? Are you happy? What are you suppressing? What goals or interests do you have? I am asking myself a lot of questions unrelated to food because I believe that food is a symptom of something else that is going on. A person can't be that hungry to make them gain weight. What are you hungry for? What's eating you? I know that there are certain things that I am not happy with in my life and it would be ideal and wonderful if things were the way that we dreamed or hoped them to be but that's not always the case. I am trying to work on accepting things as they are (seeing the glass half full rather than half empty) and go with the flow. I remind myself that the grass is not greener on the other side no matter what I may think or see. Things are not always as they seem.
Good luck and keep in touch. I came on this site tonight to get some support because I am having a hard time doing this on my own. I realize that I need to keep in touch with people who are going through the same thing as I am. I want to nip this in the butt and be at peace with it so I hope that we will be able to get through this together.
Hugs.
Edited 10/8/2005 11:50 pm ET ET by isabella32
Edited 10/8/2005 11:51 pm ET ET by isabella32
Thank you for all your support!
I always thought stress was easy to recognized. Like an exam you havent studied for, or having a job interview. But when I think about the last weeks, there have been things bugging me.
We're having problems with our upstair neighboor (they walk with their shoes all the time and always move their furniture..very noisy) and my roomate is making it worst. The neighboor are mad at us because we asked them to be careful.
Then you have my boss, who is a jerk, and both the girl who works before and the girl who works after me complain about him to me. WAY TOO MUCH. I pretend I dont care so that they'll just shut up about it. And they dont. I thought I didnt care that much, but I've decided over the weekend that I want another job...
I bought a pack of cigarettes, I had stop 4 months ago. So there must be stress around me, because that is ALWAYS the reason why I fail to quit for good.
I do want more that what I have. I thought about it over the weekend, and I made a list of what I want in life, and what I want to improve about myself. Like instead of I want to be happy, I wrote down what I need to change to be happy. And what I'd want to achieve during the next 12 months.
I also realised that I have to stick to the choice I make. If I plan my meals for the day, I shouldnt allow myself to change it all. No more"if I dont eat that plate I could have 2 slice of bacon!". I really like the "Not Planning = Planning to fail".
I think I had so many thing to think about (or so many things I wanted to avoid thinking about) that I left out all the planning part, and therefore eating just about anything.
I like the idea of the new challenge. I'm so gonna do it.
I also realised that I havent been active on the board lately, so I guess that by losing the support, i kind of lost the motivation.
So tomorrow is another week. And I WILL plan it. :)
Thanks again!
Emilie
Hi Emilie,
It was nice to hear from you. I'm happy to hear that you are taking control of the challenges and/or obstacles in your life and deciding to do something about them rather than allow it to control you. As you can see, once you are able to break things down and peel away the layers, it is easy to understand that weight gain and overeating has more to do with what's going on in our lives and how we cope and manage life's issues and challenges rather than food itself. Food does not have any emotions or feelings but we give it feelings and emotions because it is so easy for us to control it by using it to provide us with the support that we need. If food(s) had emotions and could talk, it may be a good thing. Food(s) could at least put up a fight and run off when we want to eat it. lol.
I know how you feel about not being happy at your job. I have two jobs and I am not happy with either them. lol. I supply teach (graduated in June as a teacher) and working as a supply teacher plus I work in customer service so both jobs can be stressful and loud! I took note of something you said in your posting with regards to devising a 12-month plan. I am not happy with certain things in my life as well and I would like to be in my own place within 1 year so I like the 12-month plan agenda. Even though it is not written in stone, it's a good place to start. At least you have a rough sketch of where you want to be and a compass to show you how you will get there. It's the same idea if you were planning a road trip. You wouldn't leave without the map or directions and without booking reservations.
I hope that you will visit the board more frequently. It's been a while since I have been on and I have decided to visit often because I need the support but more importantly, I learn from other members. When I went through my break-up 1.5 years ago, I was on the boards quite often. I found ivillage.com by mistake and was glad that I did because it helped me to deal with a lot of the pain and anger that I was dealing with. I used the boards for many months because I received so much wonderful support, encouragment and advice from many people who went through similar circumstances as mine. I am doing much better but I now want to focus on reaching my goal weight and being at peace with my body. I have been trying to do it on my own but I am finding it difficult. I need the support and praise just like you.
Good luck this week.